The place du quartier des spectacles and the maison du festival de jazz

“Ensuring the continuity of our major events”

 

 

Interview with Alain Simard
President and founder

Along with a concert program that will surprise even diehard jazz fans, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal will celebrate its 30th anniversary next summer with the opening of two extraordinary new facilities: the place du quartier des spectacles and the maison du festival de jazz. Alain Simard explains the important role these new additions will play on the Montreal cultural landscape.

 

In the wake of Rendez-vous 2007 Montréal, métropole culturelle last autumn, have you sensed a genuine willingness on the part of our elected officials to ensure Montreal’s position as a major cultural metropolis?

Alain Simard: Certainly! Since the summit, which brought the three levels of government together with the leaders of the cultural, economic and tourism sectors, there has been a real consensus to prioritize the development of the Quartier des spectacles and major festivals in order to affirm Montreal’s image as a vanguard cultural metropolis. We can already sense the dawn of a new spirit of partnership in our elected officials and civil servants, directed at finding concrete solutions to deal with competition from large cities like Toronto that envy our international success.

In a few words, can you describe what the Quartier des spectacles represents?

Alain Simard: In broad outlines, it’s the downtown sector that plays host to the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Les FrancoFolies de Montréal and the Festival Juste pour rire, featuring some twenty showrooms and venues, as well as public areas suitable for the major events responsible for Montreal’s reputation. Every effort has been made to revitalize and highlight the quarter, to preserve its cultural effervescence and stimulate real estate development, all the while developing numerous magnificent public spaces which will ensure the perennity of our major events. Judging by the quality of the development planned by urban designers Clément Demers and Daoust Lestage (to whom we owe the Quartier international de Montréal and Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle), there’s no doubt that the Quartier des spectacles is destined to become a genuine permanent Montreal tourist destination in the coming years.

In concrete terms, what will be changed by the creation of the Place du Quartier des spectacles, to be inaugurated next summer?

Alain Simard: It will be the beginning of a new era for festivals, thanks to new public facilities conceived to accommodate major public gatherings. The development of Jeanne-Mance and Ste. Catherine Streets will also be reviewed to eliminate curbs and create a gigantic square capable of hosting very large crowds. After years of “squatting” on vacant lots increasingly threatened by real estate development, the Festival de Jazz and its thousands of fans will finally have access to an improved site that will ensure the existence of future editions.

Can you offer us more details on the Place? What purpose will it serve? How is it different from other public areas, such as Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle in the Quartier international?

Alain Simard: The architects conceived a large public space featuring illuminated fountains designed by Michel Lemieux, and landscape development that would enhance the natural unevenness of the terrain, with permanent surfaces at the Jeanne-Mance St. level and along the façade of the Musée d’art contemporain, which will finally reach its full potential. All Montreal events can make use of it, and I am certain that its very existence will generate ideas to keep it active all year long. For example, it could host a European-style Christmas Market, or the MAC could hold a symposium on sculpture in the fall.

Along with the Place du Quartier des spectacles, there will also be the inauguration of the Maison du Festival de Jazz. Please explain the purposes served by the Maison.

Alain Simard: Finally, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal will have the respectability of a year-round home with the seven-storey cultural complex, which will include the famed jazz resto-club Upstairs on its ground floor featuring live music 364 days a year, as well as a versatile 300-capacity venue devoted to jazz, blues and worldbeat artists. The Festival will also open its Galerie on the 2nd floor along with a permanent exhibition room, and a Jazz Hall of Fame. The greater public will also be able to consult the Festival’s audio-visual archives on the 3rd floor, while other levels will be occupied by logistical, production and development offices. Other festivals occupying adjacent space will also have access to these logistical facilities, to the benefit of all Montrealers.

What is your long-term vision for the Festival?

Alain Simard: With all these new facilities and public spaces which will complete the Quartier des spectacles in the coming few years, the Festival can develop and welcome guests in an ever more professional manner, all the more so given its site will be considerably improved. In addition, the Maison du Festival de Jazz will allow us to fulfill our mission towards Montrealers and tourists all year long, not to mention the many fans and musicians who will visit and meet one another online in the virtual version of the Maison, yet another vehicle to further promote the Festival and its music around the world. Already recognized as the most important of its kind in the world, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal is surely destined to grow into the largest musical gathering on the planet, notably through the broadening of its mandate to promote musical practice via the Montreal Musical Instrument Show (SIMM) and the Montreal Guitar Show (SGM). The Festival will be around for a long time to come, discovering new jazz adventurers and proceeding ever further along the trails blazed by the legends of jazz and its related musics. I hope to be here to celebrate the 50th anniversary with you!